Blackie Gejeian (ga-gee-an) has been traveling the country looking for the crme de la crme for his show held in March since he began in 1958. The man in black personally chooses and invites each and every owner/vehicle to his show in Fresno. It's not just organized, promoted, and run by Blackie-?it is Blackie. And, he keeps it simple; just two primary coveted awards are personally handed out by Blackie: Best Rod and Best Custom.

"God Bless the Flat Heads!" said the back window on Alex Xydias' pickup. It was the 1952 Bonneville Nationals, and the writing was on more than just SO-CAL Speed Shop's shop truck: the overheads, as the Cadillacs, Oldsmobiles, and Chryslers portended, would soon surpass Henry's valve-in-block pioneer as the default race engine. That very week Ray Brown and Mal Hooper's Hemi-powered belly tank struck the first blow at the Flathead by taking the SO-CAL team's freshly minted C-class record. According to Dean Batchelor, whom I graciously admit inspired this introduction, Bobby Meeks' masterpiece fought valiantly to the end.

We can't think of anybody who has contributed as much to hot rodding as Wally Parks, who passed away on Friday, September 28.

The NSRA Street Rod Nationals is the granddaddy of events that pulls street rodders together from every corner of the U.S. But did you know that a couple of fishing buddies at R&C kick started the whole shebang?

After attending half a dozen Americruises in Lincoln, Nebraska, I like to think of the city is a second home. I pride myself on being able to make it around town without heading down too many one-way streets, remembering which nights they having cruising at Sonic or Culver's, and knowing a few members of the Rebels car club on a first-name basis.

After 35 years of serious collecting, Pat Aust is ready to catch up on a few projects and move a few more of his cars into the "completed" category. As a second-generation Southern California native hot rodder, Pat was messing with cars well before receiving his driver's license, and luckily for him, he's been able to hang on to a majority of those four-wheeled fascinations. Back in the '60s, Pat started off with a 1953 Ford Country Squire station wagon that he fixed up and eventually sold to purchase a pristine 1956 Chevy Bel Air hardtop. The '56 was given the treatment of the day with new paint, leather interior, and chrome reversed wheels. That ride lasted until the end of high school, but soon a family and civil servant career took center stage.

It wouldn't be accurate to call Keith Weesner an automotive artist. He's an artist. Sure, you can see his work in hot rodding magazines and on the chests of any fan who has purchased one of his T-shirts at a hot rod get-together--but you can also see it hanging on the walls of fancy galleries, where patrons of the arts, who may have never been to a rod run, happily shell out serious money for an original Keith Weesner painting. He's a member of the Burbank Choppers, a car club dedicated to building, driving, and promoting traditionally-accurate rods and customs. He's doing a great job of exposing hot rodders to fine art, and exposing the rest of the world to hot rodding. We cornered Keith at a recent outdoor car show and barraged him with some of the questions we'd been saving just for the occasion.

In the elusive search for more horsepower, early pioneers of racing experimented by adding various chemicals to their fuel tanks. For Vic Edelbrock, introduction to a potential power enhancer came from midget driver Ed Haddad. Ed had been given a nitromethane-based fuel sold by a company called the Dooling Brothers of Los Angeles. Manufacturers of aluminum midget slot cars, the Brothers used the fuel to power a 6.1ci single-cylinder engine used in one of their miniature cars. Haddad brought the 1-gallon can of nitro to Edelbrock saying he didn't want any part of it, because it could blow up in your face. Edelbrock thought the threat of explosion was overrated. He had heard about the wonders of nitro and wanted to try it immediately.

By now, everyone knows of the havoc caused by Hurricane Katrina. Never before in our country's history has such an enormous number of Americans suffered so greatly from a single-or even series of-natural disasters. There's nothing we can say about the devastation and tragedy that hasn't been said a million times already. To help the victims as best we can, Year One has started the Hot Rodders' Relief Fund to collect donations for the Red Cross relief efforts. Every penny collected will go to the Red Cross.

There are a bunch of people in the hot rodding and custom car hobby and industry who have become so well-known that we start to think they've been around forever. However, as you're about to see, that is hardly the case. Even big-name builders and collectors had to start somewhere. We wanted to find out where, so we got on the telephone to some of these prominent guys and invited them to do the same thing we've been inviting all of our readers to do--send us some photographs of their car projects from the "old days." What kind of cars were hot rodding's big guns building and driving when they were young guns, before they started drawing the attention of the rest of the world? Here are some of the responses we received. We had so much fun with this that we may decide to get more pros involved in the future.

It's the marvel of electronics! You have successfully loaded the R&C URL from the magazine into your browser, and now you're free to peruse the three preview stories. You'll also be able to look back at the cover and the Table of Contents for issues you may have missed. Enjoy!

rodandcustommagazine.com Facts:

Did you know can upload your own photos and a description of your car in the Readers’ Rides section? Click on Cars & Events in the left navigation bar, then select Readers’ Rides from the drop-down menu. Click on the Submit Photo button on the lower right of the screen. Be sure to follow the directions--particularly regarding photo sizes and formats--otherwise your photos will be distorted.

Any time you wish to return to the home page, just click on the Rod & Custom logo. It’s available from anywhere on the site!

To narrow down the list of articles in any index (such as Tech Articles or How-To found on the within the navigation bar), click on the Make, Model & Year drop-down (which will intially say "All Makes."). For example, click on the All Makes text to reveal the list of Makes. Select the one you want to view, and the Model list for that make will appear. Then select the Model, and a list of Years will appear. When you have selected the items you want, click on the "Go!" button.

You can click on the "Go!" button at any stage of the process. Thus, if you wish to see all Ford stories--but only Ford--click on "Go!" after selecting Ford from the Make drop-down. If you wish to see all Ford Mustang stories, click on "Go!" after selecting your Make and Model. To see only 1999 Ford Mustangs, click on "Go!" after selecting from all three drop-downs. This function allows you to also see stories from our sister sites, such as hotrod.com or fourwheeler.com.

Did we mention that it was our birthday? R&C's first-ever issue was May 1953, which makes us 50 years old.

By Spencer Murray, Founding Editor

Cover Section: Basic Bodywork & Custom Tricks

Probably no race car in existence has been campaigned as long and as hard as this chopped and channeled ’34 Ford. The men who had a part in this old hot rod’s evolution, preservation, and triumphs, as well as the lives it touched along the way, are unequaled in racing. Undefeated in drag racing and a record holder at Bonneville, Hot Rod magazine dubbed it the “Double-Threat Coupe” way back in 1954.

Like a talent scout who turns a bit player into a movie star, Alex Xydias rescued an also-ran and created a winner—the So-Cal Coupe. The Coupe’s time with Alex and the So-Cal Speed Shop is only part of its history. In part one of this saga, we’ll explore the critical path that led to Alex’s acquisition of the Coupe as well as his experiences with it.

Alex Xydias

As a schoolboy growing up in Hollywood, Alex recalls that he was “a typical hot rod kid. My first car was a roadster, I took auto shop in high school, and I went up to the lakes to watch my heros Vic Edelbrock and Bob Rufi run.” The young spectator was hooked. Alex vowed to return as a competitor someday. During WWII, Alex served as a B-17 engineer. While at home on leave, Alex saw some kids street racing and decided that he wanted to open a speed shop when the war ended. In 1946, Alex opened the So-Cal Speed Shop in Burbank and realized his dream.

By 1948, with his speed shop in full swing, it was time for Alex to turn his other dream into reality—to compete at the lakes. Alex formed a team consisting of Keith Baldwin, Rich French, and Dick Flint. “I wanted something that was a real race car to go with the speed shop. I needed to be in a class where I could be recognized and try to set records,” emphasizes Alex.

The crew began construction of a Class A streamliner in February 1948 using two halves of a P-38 drop (fuel) tank for the body. Power was provided by a 156ci Ford V8-60. During the construction of the car, Vic Edelbrock Sr. showed Alex how to get the most out of the tiny engine, helping the team make a record run of 130.155 mph at El Mirage that August. Alex states, “We set several records at every lakes meet in 1948, even breaking our own records.”

While the belly tank was in the Streamliner class, it obviously didn’t resemble a streamliner. Frankly, it looked like what it was—a fuel tank on wheels.

Open-wheel cars like the belly tank were later placed in the Lakester class. Thus set the stage for a second car that had the look of a true streamliner. The sleek, butter-smooth race car screamed into the record books at the First Bonneville National Speed Trials going 193 mph. Because of its appearance and performance (the more efficient body of the new car made it 30 mph faster than any hot rod before it), Alex’s fully enclosed car generated a new Streamliner class. To compete at the first Bonneville event sanctioned by SCTA in 1949 was, in itself, historical, but to have the top speed of the meet is one of the reasons why Alex is a legend.

“Why do you want to do a story on me?” That was Fred Larsen’s reaction when we approached him. Guys like Larsen are the reason Hot Rod magazine was created. He is the definitive, no-nonsense hot rodder. A member of the 300-mph chapter of the Bonneville 200-mph Club, Fred is not one to mince words. His comments can be razor-sharp. Even so, when it comes to racing, he lets his countless national and international speed records do the talking for him. A 1963 L.A. Times article summed up his success: “The most consistent winner at the annual Bonneville speed trials for the past five years has been a retired Navy chief petty officer from La Mirada, Fred Larsen.” Setting new records every year from 1959 through 1963 at Bonneville was just the beginning. Far greater achievements were yet to come on the salt for the Fred and partner Don Cummins.

Fred grew up in Culver City, California, on the west side of Los Angeles, and he was a spectator at the first dry lakes meet in Muroc in 1936. He was immediately smitten with dry lakes racing, but not necessarily with the dry lakes. “It was the same then as it is today,” Fred says. “Dirty!” Larsen built his first dry lakes racer, a ’25 Model T roadster with a Winfield carb and Ricardo head, in 1938. Later, he ran a Chevy roadster with a ’28 Chevy four and an Olds head, replacing the Chevy with a much lighter ’27 T body. It ran 85 mph in 1940. His last car before the war was a ’29 Model A with a four-banger and a Winfield head and carburetor, which ran 112 mph—quite respectable in 1941.

’40s-Style Roddin’

Fred drove what was probably one of the first cross-country cruisers. While in the Navy in 1948, he bought a ’29 Ford roadster and drove it from California to Connecticut and then all over the eastern seaboard. Fred says, “It had a flat-knocker , a full bellypan…the whole nine yards. I put a ton of miles on that puppy back there, then drove it back to California and turned it into a lakes and drag-race car.”

After returning to Culver City, Larsen joined the Screwdrivers car club. As one of the clubs in the Russetta Timing Association, it was responsible for setting up the racecourse on the lakebed. Larsen and other club members would arrive at El Mirage at 7:30 a.m. to mark the course. Since they would be running the track, too, they chose carefully. Fred pushed his metallic-green ’29 roadster to 141.73 mph in the B Roadsters class in 1951. It didn’t take long before his counterparts and the motoring press noticed his success.

Like most of his fellow racers, Fred drove his car to the lakes, so switching to alcohol at the race was time-consuming and costly. In a Jan. ’52 article, Fred told Hop Up magazine that he liked the idea of a new class limited to gas, commenting that he spent $20 a week on alcohol while gas was only a couple of bucks.

What better place to meet Krafty Dick Kraft than at John Force’s incredible drag racing headquarters in Yorba Linda, California? Recently, I was fortunate enough to tour John Force’s high-tech facility as part of a small group that included, among others, Ed Iskenderian and Dick Kraft. When John arrived to show us around, he spotted Dick and Isky; the roles were reversed and John became the fan for a change. It makes sense that he should feel this way—when John Force was in diapers, Dick Kraft was ringing out his new state-of-the-art rail job at the Santa Ana Dragstrip.

Catching The Racing Bug

Dick was born in the sleepy California farming community of Anaheim in 1921, where the smell of citrus groves—not exhaust fumes—permeated the air. “Some dang fool gave me a roadster when I was 14 and ruined my whole cotton-pickin’ life,” begins Dick Kraft on his entry into the world of hot rods. “Then, I had a ’29 Model A with Kelseys and a Winfield head that I paid for by working on the family ranches. I wasn’t getting anywhere so I bought a ’32 roadster with side mounts and 18-inch wheels for $200. In high school, we had a car club called the Plutocrats. Every Saturday night, we would street race to hold our number-one status. All the guys in the club would later go on to hold records. I ran the ’32 only one time at the lakes and turned 98 mph.”

Street racing, while we don’t condone it, is a part of hot rod history. The legends of the sport didn’t become heros by collecting stamps as kids—they were racers. Dick recalls: “Before you were 18 , if you got tickets, you had to go to traffic school on Saturday in Santa Ana. I went to traffic school from the time I was 16 ’til I was 18 without a Saturday morning off.”

Toning Up

Rod & Custom ran a photo in the Jan. ’02 issue showing Dick at speed in The Bug. Some readers may have noticed the size of Dick’s arms. Dick could bench-press 300-plus pounds in those days, and what better place to hang out with a body like that than at the beach? Naturally, he went for the girls, but the real draw to places like Newport Road (between neighboring Santa Ana and Costa Mesa) was street racing.

“I really went to the beach to street race,” says Dick. “When there wasn’t anyone to race, we’d get kind of bored and go out into the parking lot and street fight.” The beach and sailors went together, and after a few brews, the boys in white sometimes had a differing of opinions with guys like Dick. You can probably guess who got the upper hand.

He was defined physically by his famous sandals, shorts, and black horn-rimmed glasses. He was defined on the page by right-place-at-the-right-time photography and his colorful Gray-speak, a combination of ’50s slang, hot rod lingo, and his own unique vocabulary. He was defined overall by his love for anything related to hot rodding, from the salt to the lakes to the strip to the street. He experienced it all and turned around and told the rest of the world—or anybody who wanted to listen—all about it.

On February 1st, Charles Gray Baskerville, whose words and photos filled the pages of this magazine and our sister magazine, Hot Rod , for almost 35 years, passed away from complications of cancer at the age of 66.

Gray was born August 16, 1935, in Los Angeles. He grew up in Hermosa Beach, south of L.A. By the time he was old enough to drive, hot rodding had exploded in Southern California, and Robert Petersen was getting the word out with Hot Rod magazine.

Gray’s family was in the performance-magazine biz before Petersen was even born. His grandfather had been publishing Motorcyclist magazine since 1919 (the magazine was eventually purchased by Petersen). When Gray graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1958, he began writing for Motorcyclist.

In the early ’60s, Gray, along with Paul Horning and Ernie Murashige, campaigned a B/Altered Model T roadster pickup in addition to owning a few hot rods. Gray’s professional background and his passion for hot rods landed him a job at Petersen Publishing. On July 16, 1968, he began writing special-issue magazines, repair manuals, and Hot Rod annuals for the Specialty Publishing Division.

When Rod & Custom was revived in 1972, Tom Medley hired Gray onto the staff. It was a smart move. Rodding was rolling in some very untraditional directions in the early ’70s, but Gray’s roots in the ’50s and ’60s benefited the magazine. When R&C was discontinued again in 1974, Gray transferred to Hot Rod, where he spent the rest of his career.

Vastly appreciated by his readers, Gray was underappreciated by many hot rod industry bigwigs, including a few within the company he worked for. It didn’t seem to make him bitter, just disappointed that people didn’t get it. Never aspiring to be a bigwig himself allowed him to keep doing what he loved—hanging around hot rods. By the time he retired as a full-time employee in November 2000, Gray had perfected a writing style that clearly communicated his passion. It wasn’t journalism; it was a devoted hot rodder so excited about what he’d seen that he couldn’t wait to tell everybody.

The late Leslie Lovett, one of drag racing’s most creative and most respected quarter-mile photographers, once told me, “When Wild Willie Borsch comes up to the starting line, it doesn’t matter who’s racing in the other lane. For all you know, it could be Big Daddy Don Garlits. It just doesn’t matter. You photograph Borsch!”

In the latter part of 1954, Ford Motor Company's special events manager J.G. Mullaly hit upon a better idea with a brilliant stroke of inspiration. Why not capitalize on Ford's new colorful image by hosting a hot rod and custom car show under the roof of Ford's fabulous Rotunda in Dearborn? The youth of America still considered Ford products the mainstay for executing better ideas in performance and styling, since Chevy's high-revving 265 was just being introduced.

You know him for his custom car creations and trend-setting painting techniques, but did you know that Gene "Windy" Winfield was as hardcore a hot rod racer as ever strapped on a helmet? This is the story of Winfield's racing days.

There’s no denying that hot rods are largely about aesthetics. The problem is, with a huge palette of components to choose from, it’s way too easy to create bad art. As magazine guys, we’re supposed to maintain the illusion that hobby cars are individualistic expression, and that no one is supposed to dub anyone else’s automotive vision as right or wrong. Still, gross errors like wrong stance, wrong colors, and wrong wheels, or more minute details like headlight placement and windshield rake, can make the difference between a stunning vibe and a total mess.

As we embark on a Deuce highboy project, visualizing our roadster as a whole is critical before we start loading up the credit card. As we considered the minutia and the affect they have on the overall feel of the car, we realized that we’ve never seen a checklist of things to consider for mainstream hot rod styling. So that’s our goal with this story.

Rod styles are so vast that we had to set some limits. First, we decided to stick with highboys. That means we’re also focusing on the most common ’28-’34 Fords, though the info applies to coupes, roadsters, and sedans. We’re also narrowing in on the parts and components that are commonly available from the chassis companies and the aftermarket at large rather than delve into the possibilities of custom creations. This will cover the more traditional looks of the ’40s through the very early ’70s, albeit sometimes with a contemporary twist.

We love old photos of real hot rods. When we detoured our Asphalt Ego-Rama ’01 trek through northern Nevada to tour Louis Cote’s collection of old Ford iron, we never expected him to lay these photos on us. He kept these original, near-mint photos safe in plastic sleeves and organized in a binder.

As any rodder knows, a '32 Ford of any body style never gets thrown away. Short of being run over by a freight train, a Deuce will just keep coming back in one configuration or another. Owners may change, engines may be swapped, but once this ever-popular Ford model has been hot rodded, it stays that way.